The more time your spend administrating your personal trainer business and the less time you spend training means you’re losing money.What do I mean by this?Simple. You get paid for training, not for administrating.That’s why you must focus on spending more time training and less time administrating… without your business suffering. In fact, you want your personal trainer business to grow.The best way to spend less time administrating is getting personal trainer business and scheduling software that automates and centralizes your administrative tasks.The problem is there are so many software applications available, where do you start?You start by understanding your personal trainer business needs – break down the administrative tasks you’re involved in.Those tasks are:
Scheduling / booking appointments
Payment processing
Client contact management
Marketing (a big one)
E-commerce (maybe – something you’ll want to do in my view)
If you’re reading this, then you clearly aren’t pleased with your current tech set up. I suspect you use a variety of basic applications to get the job done. Perhaps you have spreadsheets, Word documents, and a basic digital calendar trying to perform all these tasks.The trouble with juggling several applications like this is you do a lot of duplication. Worse yet, is none of that set-up is automated.If you aren’t into e-commerce, then you’re missing out on some revenues. As a personal trainer, you have a terrific opportunity to set up an online store on your website where you sell your recommended products. And there are a lot of products you can sell as a personal trainer… clothing, gear, supplements, equipment – you name it, you can sell it.There are 3 key elements to choosing the best personal trainer business and scheduling software:
Web-based
Automated
Centralized
1. Web-based means you access the software through a secure login. This is by far the easiest type of software (compared to desktop installation) to use. You can access it anywhere and you don’t have to mess around with networking and installation.2. Automated means tasks are performed automatically. For example, wouldn’t it be great if your software sent out appointment reminder emails to your clients to reduce no-shows?3. Centralized means one software application performs all the tasks. This way the software integrates seamlessly without integration hassles.Now the specificsA. Scheduling Software RequirementsYou earn money with your time via appointments. Yet, how much time do you spend booking appointments? Look for software that enables your clients to self-book their appointments through a login set up on your website. Sure, not every client will do this, but even if 25 percent of them do, it’ll save you a ton of time.Moreover, when you make it easy for your clients to book appointments, they’ll book more appointments.You also want your scheduling software to sync with an e-mail software that can send email reminders about appointments. Cutting down on no-shows is critical.B. Payment ProcessingIf you don’t offer credit card payment processing, you should. People like paying by credit cards. The trouble with traditional credit card processing is you need software and hardware – which you lease monthly. Instead, look for personal trainer business software that comes with credit card processing capabilities that does not require hardware.C. Client Contact ManagementInstead of managing contacts in a spreadsheet or Word document, get personal trainer business software that uses a database where you can completely manage your clients (prospective and current) in one location.D. Direct Marketing CapabilitiesDo you do email marketing? If not, you’re missing out on one of the most effective and inexpensive forms of marketing – especially in a person-to-person business such as being a personal trainer. Email marketing offers opportunities to sell to your current clients as well as market to prospective clients.You can offer sales, discounts, packages, great information, fitness tips – it’s a magical portal through which you constantly communicate with many people.E. E-Commerce (Online Store) FeaturesThere’s a reason there are so many fitness-related e-commerce websites… because it’s huge business. As a personal trainer you have credibility, a website, and many contacts to whom you can sell your “personally recommended products”.There are many ways to set up an online store – and you don’t necessarily need to carry inventory. You can simply set up a store and let the manufacturer deal with shipping the products directly from a warehouse. This is called drop shipping, which is no hassle to you, yet you earn profits on the sale.These are features you must have if you want a superior personal trainer business and scheduling software. Don’t settle for less.